Haddad Maia and Halep enter Toronto Masters semis

Toronto: Simona Halep served twice for her match against co cog au ff without success on friday before finally securing a 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) quarter-final victory at the WTA Toronto Masters.

The former number one, a two-time winner in Canada, made hard work of her triumph over the rising American teenager who just missed a chance at cracking the world ranking top-10 for the first time.

Halep needed a second-set tiebreaker to advance into the semi-finals in just under two hours, lining up a meeting with seventh-seeded American Jessica Pegula.

Double Grand Slam champion Halep earned her 183rd match win at the Masters 1000 level.

In other quarter-final action, Brazil’s giant-killer Beatriz Haddad Maia claimed another victim as she upset Olympic champion Belinda Bencic with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 comeback win.

The South American, who stunned world number one Iga Swiatek in the third round, won her 16th match since June, the month in which she claimed back-to-back grass titles in Notingham and Birmingham.

Bencic, the 2015 Toronto champion who beat soon-to-retire Serena Williams in an emotional second-round clash, was broken four times and coughed up five double-faults.

“I’m feeling happy, for sure, it’s a special moment,” Haddad Maia said.

The Brazilian will aim for the final against 2021 finalist Karolina Pliskova, a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 winner over Chinese teenager Zheng Qinwen.

Double grand slam champion hale pear ned her leading 183rd match win at the Masters 1000 level.

She now owns 36 match victories in 2022. Gauff fired a backhand into the net on Halep’s first match point to end the encounter and lose her eighth straight set against the 30-year-old Romanian.

Halep will play her 29th Masters semi-final against Pegula, who defeated Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-3.

Halep and Roland Garros quarter-finalist Pegula will meet for the first time.*

RUUD ROUTED HOMETOWN FAVORITE AUGERALIASSIME IN MONTREAL: Fourth-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway routed hometown favorite Felix Auger-aliassime 6-1, 6-2 on Friday in the National Bank Open quarterfinals.

“It was one of those days where everything goes in one favor and luckily it was in my favor,” Ruud said ater reaching his third Masters 1000 semifinal of the season.

The sixth-seeded Auger-aliassime, made 21 unforced errors to just eight for Ruud.

Ruud will face eighth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, a 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 6-1 winner over Nick Kyrgios of Australia.

In the night session, Britain’s Daniel Evans beat American Tommy Paul 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, and Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta topped British qualifier Jack Draper 7-6 (4), 6-1.

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic pulled out of next week’s hard-court tournament in Cincinnati on Friday because he has not goten any COVID-19 vaccine shots and so is not allowed to travel to the United States.

That is also why Djokovic is not expected to be abletoentertheusopen,theyear’slastgrandslam tournament, which begins in New York on Aug. 29.

Djokovic is a 35-year-old from Serbia who owns 21 major championships, one behind Rafael Nadal for the men’s record. Djokovic has said he won’t get vaccinated against the illness caused by the coronavirus, even if that prevents him from playing in certain tournaments.

He missed the Australian Open in January ater being deported from that country and needed to sit out two events in the United States earlier this year, along with a tournament in Montreal this week.

SERENA TO FACE RADUCANU IN CINCINNATI OPENER: Serena Williams will face a challenging first-round clash with reigning US Open champion Emmaraducanuwhentheustennisgreat’sfarewell tour continues at Cincinnati next week.

Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam champion, revealed this week that the “countdown has begun” to her retirement, with the 40-year-old expected to bid farewell ater a final major campaign at the US Open starting later this month.

Williams won her first singles match in more than a year when she defeated Spain’s Nuria Parrizas Diaz in the first round at Toronto last week.